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This month has been filled with lots of interesting reading so it hasn’t been easy to narrow the list down for this newsletter! Interestingly, two key themes/topics have stood out from my reading this month – introversion and questions…
Last month The New York Times published an opinion piece by Susan Cain (author of the recently released “QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking“) titled ‘The Rise of the New Groupthink‘. It’s a great article on why solitude is important in work/creativity and some of the problems with the push we see in many organisations toward constant teamwork and interaction. The article and the book release have spurred a number of follow up pieces on the Harvard Business Review blog, Scientific American and Fast Company. As part of the one-third to one-half of the population that are introverted, I also enjoyed this post on networking advice for introverts.
I’ve also just finished Michael Marquardt’s book, Leading with Questions, so have been reflecting on, and interested in reading about the power of questions. If you don’t have the time or the interest in reading the whole book, this HBR blog post on How to Ask Better Questions summarises a number of the key points. Of course, a common assumption is that successful leaders always know what to say and the right course to take, but in fact great leaders don’t need to have all the answers. On a related topic, Tommy McWilliam’s post on what he’s learned about smart people is worth a read, and this essay by Scott Berkun highlights the importance of using questions to help with detecting bullshit.
Finally, four more links to articles (on a range of different topics) that I enjoyed this month…
Hi Clare
Great readings – thank you! I read in AIM’s recent Management Today magazine that there is a book called “The Introverted Leader: Building on your quiet strength” by Jennifer Kahnweiler.
Amanda